He noted that there have not been many opportunities for Vietnamese electronics firms to develop products in recent years, because they are inferior to Chinese in the common electronics market segment.

Tien calls the national TV digitalization program the ‘golden opportunity’ for the firms to take to regain their strength and develop.

The program has created a vast market with 10 million DVB T2 set top boxes in demand, which need to be provided within five years, from 2015 to 2020. 

Also according to Tien, TV devices are the field which Vietnam is completely capable of controlling and Vietnam should not struggle to prevent Chinese low-cost low-quality products from penetrating the domestic market.

In order to successfully prevent imports and encourage local production, the state should create reasonable policies to encourage Vietnamese firms to design and develop set top boxes of their own. 

To date, GBS and VNPT Technology have stated they can manufacture set top boxes to serve the ongoing national TV digitalization program.

GBS’ DVB-T2 is 100 percent researched and developed by GBS and assembled in China. Meanwhile, VNPT Technology researches, develops and manufactures the products at its factory in Hanoi. 

Nguyen Bac Ha, director of GBS, affirmed that GBS-HD T252, the company’s product, has been tested by ST Group in many environments and under different conditions and it has been certified as meeting European standards.

Affirming that the product has a configuration twice as strong than the products of this kind in the market and that it is one of the best products available in the market, Ha is anxious about the sale.

The biggest problem is that made-in-Vietnam products have to compete with Chinese products labeled as Vietnamese products sold at very low prices in the market. 

To date, 43 products of 18 enterprises of this kind have been recognized as meeting standards. Ha noted that many manufacturers import complete sets of components from China and just do simple assembling in Vietnam.

The Ministry of Information and Communication (MIC) is looking for a company which can provide 530,000 set top box products within three months.

Under the national TV digitalization program, analog TVs will be stopped in Hanoi, HCM City, Can Tho and Hai Phong from January 1, 2016. It is estimated that 530,000 set top box products will be needed to be provided to poor families in the areas.

Buu Dien